The Path to People’s Attitudes toward Sponsored Search Advertising : From the Perspective of Ad Ranking Effects

Although it is widely acknowledged that ad rankings matter in sponsored search advertising (SSA) in both academia and industry, its potential effect on people’s attitudes toward advertising remains as an overlooked issue. This study proposes and tests a conceptual model examining the role of ad rankings in determining advertising attitudes in the SSA context. Moreover, we also analyze the mediating roles of perceived ad relevance and ad recall, and the moderating roles of advertiser’s brand awareness and people’s trust in search engine. Results indicate that the ad rankings are a crucial determinant of people’s attitudes toward advertising in SSA. Moreover, perceived ad relevance and ad recall partially mediate the path from ad rankings to attitudinal responses, and advertiser’s brand awareness strengthens the direct path. Interestingly, the present study empirically evidences that both the primacy effect and the recency effect of ad rankings on ad recall exist. This work contributes to our understanding of ad rankings and its effect of on people’s attitudes toward advertising by applying signaling theory and the theory of serial position effect to the SSA context. The outcome of the present work is expected to provide practical implications for SSA providers (i.e., search engines) and advertisers